This little quilt was made by Kathy Lester a few years ago. “It’s a sweet quilt that would be considered a cot quilt, as it measures 50 inches square,” says Kathy. “It lives very happily on a quilt ladder in my home.”
The pattern, 16 Strips is by Cindy Thury Smith, and was printed in the American Quilter’s Society magazine, American Quilter. “I chose this pattern as I typically like geometric designs,” says Kathy. She hadn’t seen the pattern in Australia. “I was thinking about putting it in a quilt exhibition but, typically, I never did.”
The design uses a series of plain fabrics to make the interlocking boxes or squares. “It was a fun quilt to make, laying the pieces out, figuring out which colours worked with neighbouring colours and where to place each colour on the quilt as it went together. The solid colours were from a jelly roll, the background fabric has a white background, with a series of multi coloured micro dots that form secondary patterns, adding interest to the quilt.”
Kathy quilted it on a longarm Gammill machine, with the help of Kaye Brown. “I’ve chosen a circular quilting design, with bubbles to soften the interlocking squares effect and compliment the background fabric.”
This quilt was one of those used by the Appraisal team at a QuiltNSW general meeting during a demonstration of the appraisal process. “This little simple, machine pieced quilt was valued at $1500,” Kathy says. “Even though I like the quilt I was blown away by the value of it. The team showed us the value of what we create. They also suggested that when you are giving away a quilt that you have the quilt valued and include the valuation certificate with it. We should also consider having our quilt valued to include in our house insurance.”
Did you know that all QuiltNSW members are entitled to have one quilt per year appraised by the Appraisal team for free? Fees apply for extra quilts. The Appraisal team will also travel to QuiltNSW member groups to conduct appraisals. For more information, email the team here.
